ERIC Number: EJ1303770
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jul
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Assessment of Technological Setup for Teaching Real-Time and Recorded Laboratories for Online Learning: Implications for the Return to In-Person Learning
Davy, Emma C.; Quane, Steven L.
Journal of Chemical Education, v98 n7 p2221-2227 Jul 2021
Lab-based learning is an essential part of any undergraduate chemistry curriculum as it incorporates necessary and required hands-on experiential learning. However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students are learning from home, rendering laboratory instruction a particular challenge. Options for educators include third party virtual and prerecorded materials, at-home laboratory experiments, and original prerecorded and real-time instruction. Here, we report the assessment of a variety of technological setups for real-time and prerecorded original content looking at a variety of audio and video sources as well as one-camera and two-camera options. We intentionally selected equipment that we had readily available and ensured our recordings were as close to the student experience as possible by recording via a secondary computer signed into an online learning platform. Upon a survey of a small group of students at Quest University Canada, we found that 72% of students preferred a two-camera setup using a smartphone to film the instructor as a whole and a web camera to provide a close-up view of the chemistry taking place. This setup was used for a diversity of real-time and prerecorded experiments delivered remotely at Quest University including titrations, basic synthetic reactions, and purifications. For two of the experiments, a titration lab and a synthesis and purification lab, we assessed the ability of different remote learning options to meet pre-COVID-19 learning outcomes. Real-time, digital laboratory instruction is clearly the most effective. In addition, we suggest scenarios where using digital techniques may create efficiencies in laboratory teaching upon the return to on-campus learning.
Descriptors: Science Laboratories, College Science, Chemistry, Science Instruction, COVID-19, Pandemics, School Closing, Science Experiments, Laboratory Experiments, Program Effectiveness, Educational Technology, Technology Uses in Education, Laboratory Equipment, Online Courses, Student Attitudes, Undergraduate Students, Telecommunications, Handheld Devices, Foreign Countries
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A